Manufacturers of bedding and sleep products have attempted to produce mattresses that conform to the comfort preferences of an individual through a plurality of means. These efforts have included steel inner spring mattresses, including independent ‘pocket coil’ systems, foam mattresses, air mattresses, inflatable air bladders in mattresses, waterbeds, and the like.
However, no two consumers are alike in size, shape, personal fitness level, health, preferred sleeping position, or comfort preference. These and myriad factors affect the ability of a bed to compensate for the preferred firmness of each consumer. Additionally, the requirements of each consumer may change significantly over the course of a mattress's lifespan as a consumer's weight, activity level, health, and preferred seeping position change.
Conventional bedding manufacturers have attempted to compensate for the infinite combination of consumer preferences by releasing several models of firmness for each bedding line. In particular, manufacturers strive to have consumers fit into a soft/plush/firm/ultra firm class of bedding.
Similarly, manufacturers of adjustable air beds have attempted to compensate for differing consumer preferences by allowing for different pressures in one or more air bladders. However, the arrangement required of traditional air bladders generally provides for a limited number of air bladders within the mattress that span the width of the bed, or a single occupant's position on the bed. This arrangement provides far too low a resolution of adjustability to resolve the complexities and variances between individual users' sizes, weight, sleep patterns and the like. Additionally, as the size of each air bladder increases, the pressure within the air bladder may increase as the temperature within the room increases, or as the body heat from a slumbering user warms the air within each air bladder. Such changes to the internal air pressure of an air bladder also change the firmness of each air bladder.
Visco-elastic foam bed suppliers claim that their foam beds will conform perfectly to individual body types, regardless of physiological factors applicable to individual users. However, the preferences and requirements of each user vary so widely that a few limited classes of bed firmness, especially when applied across the entire mattress surface, are insufficient to provide optimum comfort for a wide variety of bed users.